


Power Outage

by nabawrites



Series: Ereri New Year Randomizer Weekend 2018 [2]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Bed-sharing, Cuddles, First Kiss, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, I'm Sorry, Levi and Mikasa are siblings, M/M, That's weird, and eren is a personal heater basically, i tried my best but i'm tired, not a creative title, the power goes out in maine in the winter and levi hates the cold, wow i didn't write angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-04
Updated: 2019-07-04
Packaged: 2020-06-03 18:20:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19469530
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nabawrites/pseuds/nabawrites
Summary: Prompt: Fluff | Modern | WarmthSummary:The power goes out in the winter in Maine while Eren and Armin are spending the winter break with the Ackerman family. Levi hates the cold. Eren is very warm. Bed-sharing, cuddling, first kisses, and getting together ensues.





	Power Outage

**Author's Note:**

> LOL this is very similar to a Birdflash fic I wrote, which was actually like my second fanfic ever almost 5 years ago. Going back to my roots apparently.  
> I started this for Ereri New Year Weekend legit on January 2, 2019, and I am just now posting it exactly 6 months and 1 day later because I had a brain fart and couldn't figure out how to finish this darn thing. And now I've finished it. And it is some 2000 words longer than I had planned.  
> anyway, enjoy  
> ps it took me like 10 years to actually post this work because I had to go in by hand and put in all the html for my italics and paragraph breaks and everything because my very reliable word-to-html translator has decided that italics are a no-go. Please let me know if you notice that anything looks kind of wonky

Unfortunately for Mikasa, Eren is very much gay. 

Fortunately for Eren, Mikasa is very much not a bitch. 

Cue matchmaking shenanigans. 

***** 

When the power went out, it was quiet for approximately 0.47 seconds before Levi went, “Tch,” and slouched his way up the stairs to his room. 

Everybody else in the Ackerman family maneuvered around the pitch-dark living room, finding candles to light the house and pulling every spare quilt, throw blanket, onesie, and Snuggie™ they could find to combat the chill about to settle in the now heater-less house. Eren and Armin just stood out of the way, doing their best to not make an inconvenience for the well-practiced family. In a matter of minutes, there were dozens of candles lining windows and on tables, and every member of the family, plus Eren and Armin, had an armful of blankets and were being ushered into the living room, where Mikasa’s dad set up the one propane space heater they owned to at least try to keep the chill at a reasonable level. 

Eren settled in on the couch between Mikasa and Armin and started to get comfy. "Is Levi going to come back down," he asked Mikasa. "Does he have enough blankets up there?" 

Mikasa snorted. "Ha, no. Levi hates the cold and he's always a total grouch when it drops below 20°F in the house." 

Armin raised an eyebrow and scoffed. "Oh, really? _Levi_ becomes a _grouch_? Who'd have thought such a thing was possible." 

Grinning, Mikasa nodded in acknowledgment of Armin's admittedly fair point. "Okay, so more of a grouch than usual, whatever. The _point_ is that years ago we all just kind of came to an agreement that when the power goes out, Levi can be a tolerable human being or he can tough it out in his room. Levi is not capable of being cold _and_ tolerable, seeing as being tolerable takes all of his energy under normal circumstances. So off to his room he goes." 

Eren kind of wanted to argue with Mikasa on that point, as well as Armin's point that Levi was a grouch all the time. Even though Levi was part of their rather large friend group, most people just sort of tolerated him because he was close friends with Hange and Erwin, who everybody liked, and because he was Mikasa's older brother. Only Hange, Erwin, and Eren actually seemed to like him, and everybody else was pretty much constantly confused why they did. 

Everybody else thought Levi was either scary or a jerk. Eren had agreed, for the first couple weeks after they'd met, but then he sort of just realized that, most of the time, Levi didn't actually mean to be a jerk. He was just emotionally constipated and socially awkward. Generally speaking, most people didn’t have the patience to figure out Levi's intentions (or his sense of humor), so they just let him be a loner. 

Eren, on the other hand, was used to pretty much the same thing. He'd had a hard time making friends when he was younger, especially because of his anger issues after his dad left. He had lashed out at everyone and got angry at the slightest thing. Armin was the first real friend he had, and that had only been in his junior year of high school. The blond had understood what he was going though, having lost his parents at a young age, so he managed to be patient enough to figure Eren out and help him get through his issues. Mikasa came along later, in his first year of college, only after Eren had sorted some things out and became a much less difficult person to be around. 

Now, Eren was a junior, and he had amassed an amazing group of friends. His anger had mellowed out, though it was still easier for him to lose his temper than it should be. He knew he was lucky to have the friends he did, and he knew he was lucky that Armin had felt he was worth the time and energy of figuring out and getting close to. Eren knew this, and he knew that Levi was kind of similar. He didn’t have anger management issues, no, but he had his own difficult qualities, and just like Eren had Armin and Mikasa, Levi had Erwin and Hange. 

Eren knew what it was like to be ignored. He also knew that some people (re: anybody who wasn’t actually intentionally an asshat) were worth figuring out. Levi was one of those people. 

So Eren had figured him out. It took some time, and there were a few mishaps along the way, but now Eren felt like the Levi-translator his friend-group had been waiting for. Even Mikasa had started asking him for help when she couldn’t understand why Levi was being particularly difficult about a certain thing. Mikasa loved her brother, and she knew him well, but when you grow up with someone it can be easy to take them for granted, and it can be even easier to brush them off or forget that they need the time, effort, or attention that they do. 

So Eren disagreed with the point that Levi was a grouch _all_ the time. 

He did not doubt, however, that he became a grouch when it got cold. If he grew up with power outages like these, Eren didn't think he could blame him. Eren was from Florida, and if there was one thing he knew, it was that the cold fricking _sucked_. 

"And to your other question, Eren, no, he probably doesn't have enough blankets either," Mikasa continued. "At some point he'll probably stomp down here and grab some more, but at the moment, I'm sure he's rather miserable." Mikasa stated it as though it was simply just a matter of fact, but the resigned sigh that followed her statement showed that she wasn't exactly happy about it. 

Eren frowned. "Why doesn't somebody just go bring him some? It's not like it's his fault that he hates the cold." 

One of Mikasa's perfectly manicured eyebrows arched high on her forehead and there was a glint in her eyes as she looked at Eren and considered his words. After a couple seconds of silence, she exchanged a knowing glance with Armin (knowing what, however, Eren couldn't have said). "Well, we're kind of freezing our butts off at the moment, Eren, but if you want to bring him some, you are more than welcome. There are some extra ones over there." She jutted her chin out in the direction of the pile of blankets by the chimney, obviously not wanting to remove her hands from her cocoon of fleece. 

Eren hesitated, not wanting to leave his own blanket burrito, but the thought of Levi freezing in his room by himself forced him to rise. He grabbed the stack and trudged away. Behind his back, Mikasa and Armin shared another glance, smiling secretively. They didn't think he'd be back down anytime soon. 

***** 

When Eren knocked on Levi's door, the only reply he got was an annoyed grunt. Eren raised an eyebrow and opened the door. "Levi?" 

The older boy was curled up on his bed under roughly 20 blankets. At least. He hadn't carried any up with him earlier, so Eren just assumed Levi always had 20 blankets in his room for such a time as this. 

Eren cleared his throat and stepped into the room. "Hey, Levi, I figured you were still cold, so I brought you some more blankets." 

No response. 

Eren knew he wasn't asleep, after he grunted when Eren knocked. Plus, he breathing wasn't even enough. Eren rolled his eyes at his stubbornness and walked over to the side of the bed. "Levi," he said again, reaching out and grabbing an exposed wrist. 

Levi shot up into a sitting position, head barely peeking out over the mountain of blankets. "Holy _shit_ , Jaegar, your skin is warm," he said, eyes wide as he looked back and forth between Eren's face and the hand still wrapped around Levi's wrist. "Are you this warm _everywhere_? That's insane, how?" 

Eren's eyebrows furrowed. "Um, yeah, I guess? I just run hot. Maybe it's a Florida thing?" He looked away from Levi's face, feeling just a bit embarrassed. Levi had grabbed onto Eren's arm and was basically soaking in Eren's warmth, pressing the skin of his hand to his cheek and sighing contentedly. He felt his cheeks burn as he cleared his throat. "Or maybe I just have good blood circulation, I don't know." 

It was quiet for a second, and Eren looked back over at Levi. He was staring at Eren's arm, eyes squinted. Then he looked up at Eren with a scowl. "Get in." 

Eren's eyes went wide. "What?" 

"Get in. Under the blankets, now." Eren couldn't quite help but look at him like he was crazy. Levi sighed, obviously frustrated, though the light pink on his cheeks seemed to suggest he was also a little embarrassed. "I need your body heat. Hurry up, it's freezing." 

Eren was still looking at him like he was crazy, but he dropped the blankets on the edge of the bed and climbed in, lying down in the space Levi made for him. Levi pulled the blankets up and over their heads, and it was so dark Eren couldn't see Levi, despite the short distance between them. That was good though, because it meant Levi couldn't see him either, so Eren could mentally freak out over laying in his crush's bed anonymously. 

A few moments passed and Eren shifted on the bed, trying to get into a more comfortable position without touching Levi. As he settled, Levi let out a contented sigh. "Geeze, you're like a personal heater. Are you, like, ever cold, or are you immune to low temperatures?" 

Eren snorted. "Actually I get cold really easily. It's probably because I'm not used to it." 

It was quiet for a second. "Oh." Eren waited. He knew Levi would probably continue in a second. He sometimes liked to think things over before he talked so he didn't accidentally say something 'wrong'. "Are you cold right now, then?" 

Eren nodded against the pillow under his head. "Mhm." He let out an amused huff. "Glad I'm keeping you warm, though." 

"Actually," Levi said, though it sounded like he was hesitating a lot. Like he was nervous, "I'm still cold, too." 

Eren frowned. "Oh." He didn't really know what to say about that. "Sorry your personal heater plan isn't working out." It was silent for a few minutes. "You know, for body heat to really keep us warm, it's better if our skin is touching." Eren swallowed. "Then we'd keep each other warm, because we'd be sharing." 

Eren heard the sound of Levi's head rubbing against his pillow as he nodded. "Makes sense. C'mere." 

Eren's eyes widened. He didn't think that would work. He awkwardly scooted across the bed until he was right up in Levi's personal space. When Levi wrapped his arms around Eren's chest, Eren reciprocated, arms circling around his waist. They each adjusted and shuffled on the bed, adjusting to their new positions and trying not to think about how awkward it was. 

Minutes passed, and Eren was really quite content. He was warm, he was holding Levi, and he was even starting to drift off into sleep when Levi started shuffling around and shifting his weight. When he stopped, Eren settled back into an almost-sleep. 

Until Levi started wriggling around again. 

It lasted a moment or two and Levi stopped once more. Eren rolled his eyes before closing them once more, adjusting his arms around Levi to compensate for Levi's slightly different position. 

Then Levi sighed. Rather loudly. 

Eren huffed. "What is it, Levi?" 

Levi barely let Eren finish his question, obviously having been waiting for Eren to ask. "I'm still _cooollllld_ ," he whined, and Eren couldn't help a snort at how childish he sounded. If only the many, many friends he had who were afraid of this man could see him now. 

He shook his head and sat up. "Alright, Levi," he said, making sure to sound as put out as possible. "Take off your shirt." Eren took off his own and lay back down, waiting for the other man to comply. 

He did, though it took him a few seconds longer, clearly embarrassed by the situation. He slowly lied back down and Eren pulled the covers back over them before turning on his side. Levi lied on his back, staring at the ceiling with wide eyes and worrying at his lip with his teeth. Eren couldn't help a small smile. "Hey." 

Levi swallowed and turned his head. "Hi." 

Eren huffed, amused at the deer-in-headlights look in his eyes. "Turn over. Away from me." 

Levi frowned, confused, but he did so. Eren scooted closer, though they still weren't touching. Levi was shivering, and Eren wasn't sure if that was all because of the cold or if having his shirt off made him uncomfortable. He figured he should play it safe. "Is it okay if I touch you again, Levi?" 

Levi nodded and cleared his throat. "Yeah-" His voice cracked. Which really shouldn't be happening this long after puberty, but ya know. "Yeah, of course. Why wouldn't it be okay?" 

Eren smirked, but it didn't let it come through in his voice. "No reason. Just making sure." He shuffled up behind Levi and wrapped his arms around the other man's chest. He pulled him closer until Levi's back was pressed - firmly and with zero wiggle room - against Eren chest. He rearranged his arms so they were both comfortable and his arms wouldn't go numb, then he rested his forehead on the top of Levi's neck. He let out a shaky exhale, and he could have sworn he felt Levi shiver as his breath hit the back of his neck. 

Eren grinned. He had not expected his day to go this way. "Now you can't be cold," he whispered. "It's not physically possible at this point." 

Levi snorted. "If anybody could find a way to be cold in spite of you, it would be me." 

Eren laughed quietly, and it was an odd sensation to feel his own chest shaking against Levi's back. He wasn't exactly complaining though. "I won't let you. Being cold is officially against the rules. If you're still cold after this, the pants are next." 

Levi tensed a bit and Eren wondered if he said something wrong, if mentioning the pants was just a step too far out of the fairly reserved and private Levi's comfort zone. But then, after a moment, Levi relaxed against him again and let out a contented sigh. "I'm pretty sure this is enough. Even your feet are warm, how is that possible?" 

"Are you going to spend the night in awe of how warm I am or is it ever going to get old?" Eren snickered as Levi gave an indecisive hum in reply. 

"The question is, if your warmth is contagious, is my chill? Am I making you cold?" 

Eren shook his head. "Nope. And even if you were, it'd be worth it." Eren couldn't resist the temptation to slightly nuzzle his nose into the back of Levi's neck. He had no idea how he was being so calm about this, but he figured it had something to do with how well he knew Levi. If it were anybody else, Eren would likely assume that they were trying to come onto him by inviting him into their bed. Levi, though, in all likelihood hadn't even considered how his actions could have been interpreted that way. It wasn’t that he was unaware of that kind of thing or that he was incapable of flirting or coming onto someone. He just wouldn't have thought of the other ways his actions could be interpreted beyond the interpretation he meant for them to have. 

Taking off their shirts had indeed made it much warmer, and the two soaked up the bliss of finally being warm for the first time since the power went out. The warmth made them drowsy and they quickly fell into a dreamless sleep. 

***** 

Levi jerked out of Eren's arms as he sat up in bed with an absolutely ridiculous gasp for air. Eren sleepily opened his eyes and looked up at Levi, taking in his bed head and the frankly miserable look on his face. "Levi? What's wrong?" 

"Tch. Don't you feel that?" 

Eren blinked a few times before giving up and rubbing the sleep out of his eyes with his fingers while he sat up. "Um, its warm?" 

"Warm?" Levi looked at him like he'd grown a third head. Not even a second head would be enough to garner that expression. "Jaeger, it's like 100° in here." 

Eren shrugged. "Okay, so it's hot. I guess the heater came back on while we were asleep." 

"Tch." Levi started peeling layers of blankets off the bed. Eren looked over to the nightstand at the army green alarm clock. He groaned and flopped back on the bed. 

"Levi, its five a.m." 

"And?" 

"Ugh." 

"What?" 

"Ugh." 

"Well I can't sleep when I'm that hot!" 

"You were just complaining five hours ago that you were freezing." 

"And now it's hot. You might be used to the desert from living in Florida, but I am not." 

Eren's jaw dropped, incredulous. "The des- Levi, Florida is not a _desert_." 

Levi rolled his eyes and finished removing every single blanket from the bed, including the top sheet. He laid back down on the bed for a moment, before going "Tch," and getting out of bed. "I'm sweating. It’s winter in Maine and the power was out for hours and I'm _sweating_. What kind of inhuman creature are you, Jaegar?" 

"Floridian. I'm from another planet, I'm sure you've never been there. You know, since you think it's a _desert_." 

Levi glared at him before making for the bathroom. "Whatever. I'm going to shower." 

Eren sighed, disappointed. Now that the electricity had returned, Levi didn't need him anymore. He slumped his way out of the bed and trudged over to the door. Levi cocked his head to the side. "Where are you going?" 

Eren looked back at him quizzically. "Downstairs? Where everybody else is?" 

Levi blinked slowly. "Why?" 

"The power's back on?" Eren said, though it sounded more like a question than an answer. "You're not cold anymore." 

"So-" Levi stopped himself, but then he shook his head and glared at the floor. "So you were just here for that? You don't want to- It was just, what? Utilitarian?" 

"What? No, Levi, of course not. I just figured that if you didn't need me here anymore then-" 

"That doesn't mean I can't _want_ you here." Levi looked both royally embarrassed and supremely pissed, though Eren couldn't quite tell which of them Levi was mad at: Eren for not understanding or himself for being embarrassed about trying to help him understand. 

"Of course you _can_!" Eren felt quite a bit embarrassed himself. "I just didn't... think that you _did_." 

Levi crossed his arms over his chest and stared at his feet with his eyebrows bunched together. "Well I do." 

After a second of silent processing, Eren slowly smiled. "Good." Levi's head snapped up at him, eyes wide. "I'm glad." 

Levi's whole body relaxed and his perpetual resting malcontent face softened into something that looked- not quite happy because that was a little too animated word for Levi, but... content, maybe? "Good. That's- Good." Levi cleared his throat. "So you're going to stay?" 

Eren nodded. "I'd love to." 

The corner of Levi's lips quirked up just a touch, barely enough for Eren to tell. "And I can still shower?" 

Eren snorted. "Yes, Levi, you can still shower." 

"And-" Levi paused, unsure of how to continue or even if he wanted to. "And you'll... you'll wait for me to get out? Before you fall asleep?" 

Eren's smile softened. "If you want me to." 

Levi nodded once, cleared his throat, and, after a beat of slightly awkward silence, went into the bathroom without another word. Eren's smile grew as he climbed back onto the bed. He didn't lay back down because he knew he'd fall back asleep if he did, so he sat against the headboard, playing Hill Climb Racing on his phone while he waited for Levi to finish his likely very intense and long shower routine. His obsession with cleanliness, Eren assumed, was not limited to his room. 

Levi came back out 20 minutes later in a new pair of pajama bottoms, a bare chest (again, with those muscles, why did the universe _hate_ him), and a towel around his shoulders. He dropped his dirty clothes in the hamper by the closet and then, after toweling off his hair with efficient speed, he dropped his towel in there too. 

Eren, having been very much distracted by a slightly wet, bare chested Levi, had just killed his driver and run out of gas. He quickly put his phone on the nightstand, giving himself a mental note to put it on the charger in the morning because he was definitely not going downstairs to get it now, and then he turned back to Levi. “Feel better?” 

“Much.” Levi sighed tiredly and climbed back onto the bed. “I don’t know how you can stand it.” 

Eren smirked. “I’m actually not really sweating. I told you, I’m used to the heat. Think about it, if people who lived in the desert were constantly sweating from the heat, they’d be super dehydrated all the time, but there’s not much water around. So they probably don’t sweat much. People acclimate to their surroundings.” Levi scrunched his lips together and nodded his reluctant assent. “Also, I think it’s a genetic thing? My dad used to sweat like crazy, but my mom rarely even sweats much after a workout - just a little bit on her forehead.” 

One of Levi’s eyebrows inched up his forehead. “You’re weird.” 

“Says the clean freak,” Eren shot back, a teasing grin on his lips. 

“Tch. Brat.” 

“Midget.” Eren laughed at the betrayed look on Levi’s face, and Levi couldn’t help but huff amusedly at Eren basically giggling. Yes, _giggling_ , like a 5th grade girl at a sleepover. 

“I guess that’s fair.” Eren’s breath caught at the soft look in Levi’s eyes as he climbed onto the bed and settled down next to him, damp hair sticking to his forehead in a way that wasn’t actually attractive but managed to be endearing. They were sitting on Levi’s bed, backs against the headboard, faces less than a foot apart. It was dark, warm, and too early in the morning for them to be anything but exhausted. Sleep, however, was the furthest thing from Eren’s mind as he observed the fond smirk on Levi’s lips. Eren, quite simply, wanted to kiss it. 

So he did. 

And half a millisecond after their lips connected, Eren did the typical freak-out thing that you do when you do something without thinking and realize it’s a Very Bad Idea™. You know, jerking back, eyes going wide, jaw dropping, incessant apologizing? The whole, ridiculous, overly dramatic, completely unnecessary thing. 

Completely unnecessary because while Eren was too busy freaking out and apologizing, Levi took three seconds to process, blinked once, blinked twice, and then wanted to kiss Eren back but couldn’t because he was freaking out. Very inconvenient. If the brat would just chill out and let him speak, Levi could tell him to stop apologizing and just make out with him already. Alas, Eren was indeed freaking out. Sigh. 

Having little to no patience, Levi decided that if Eren wasn’t go to chill out on his own, he would just have to make him. So he sighed petulantly, flipped his damp bangs out of his eyes, and straddled Eren’s lap. Eren froze. 

Lovely. Peace and quiet. 

Levi gave him a hard stare. “Would you like to keep freaking out or would you like to kiss me again?” 

Eren opened his mouth, closed it, looked down with embarrassment, and huffed. “Kissyouagain,” he mumbled. 

Levi arched a brow, externally peeved but internally endeared by Eren's petulance. “What was that, brat? I couldn’t hear you.” 

Eren narrowed his eyes, frowned, and spoke, with dramatic volume, “I. WOULD. LIKE. TO. KISS. YOU. AGAIN.” 

Levi rolled his eyes. “What a brat.” 

Then they kissed. Yay. 

At first it was more or less chaste, a firm press of lips on lips, but then Eren built up some courage and opened his mouth, encouraging Levi to follow suit with his tongue. Levi cupped Eren’s head with one hand and ran the other through his hair, tugging on the strands that brushed along the top of his neck. Eren gripped Levi’s hips, pulling him closer, then let his hands wander over taut back muscles and pronounced shoulder blades. 

They would have loved to keep going like that till the sun came up (it’s winter in Maine, the sun might never actually come up, but they’d be fine with that too), but, frankly, Levi’s tongue was already tired (lack of practice) and part of Eren’s brain was still reminding him that it was 5 am and they’d gone to bed after 11 and 5 hours of sleep was not going to cut it. The two pulled apart, but Levi didn’t dismount from his position on Eren’s lap. He just sat there watching Eren's face as the other boy ran a hand through his damp hair, rolling one of the strands that framed his face between his thumb and finger. “Wow,” Eren whispered, awe in his voice as his eyes roved over Levi’s face. 

Levi gave him a small, secret smile. “Yeah,” he whispered back. “Wow.” 

Then Eren yawned. It was this huge, ugly yawn and his mouth opened big enough to swallow a small dog and Levi didn’t even try to resist wrinkling his nose. Eren rolled his eyes when he saw it, but then he couldn’t help but grin and gently squeeze Levi’s hips, like he couldn’t believe he was even allowed to touch him there in the first place and he was absolutely giddy about it. Schoolgirl giddy. The giddiest. It was adorable. 

Levi cleared his throat to distract from the fondness in his eyes and he crawled out of Eren’s lap and lied down on the bed. Eren squirmed down into a lying position next to him and they rolled onto their sides to face each other. “So that happened.” Eren, though clearly very happy, seemed to be nervous as he looked back and forth between Levi’s eyes. 

“Yeah.” 

It was silent for another moment as Eren worked up the gumption to speak again. “It's... going to happen again, right?” 

“Tch, you think I’d kiss you for funsies?” 

Eren blanched. “I didn’t mean it like tha-” 

“I know.” Eren blinked and gaped at him. Levi smirked, eyes alight with mirth. “I was joking.” 

“You... made a joke?” Eren looked like he didn’t believe him. 

Levi snickered. “Yes, Jaegar, I do have a sense of humor. You just haven’t noticed because it’s more evolved than yours.” 

Eren mock-glared at him. “So mean.” 

Levi’s smirk softened into a small grin. “Yes, by the way.” Eren’s eyebrows rose. “It’s going to happen again. Probably a lot, if I know anything about you.” 

Eren looked like he couldn’t decide between a smile and a glare. “I’m not sure what you mean exactly by that last part so I’m going to ignore it in favor of the part where we kiss again.” 

“Oh, you mean like this part?” Levi leaned forward and placed a light kiss on Eren’s nose. 

Eren’s eyes went wide and his face went slack. “You just kissed my nose,” he whispered, something similar to awe or shock in his voice. Levi snorted and rolled over onto his back. 

“Yeah, well, don’t get too used to that part. I’m probably at least partially delirious from sleep-deprivation.” Levi saw Eren frown slightly out of the corner of his eye. “I’m also half-certain that this is actually a dream and I’m going to wake up with a phantom feeling of your lips against mine and a fake memory of that sound you made when I pulled on your hair.” 

Eren’s grin came back full force (and with fully fledged blush to match) and he scooted closer, laying his head on Levi’s shoulder and wrapping an arm around his waist. “It’s not a dream. I’ve dreamed about this before and it didn’t even come close. I’d know if this weren’t real.” 

Levi turned his head away to hide his grin, one hand intertwining itself with Eren’s and the other coming up to run through Eren’s hair. He couldn’t resist the temptation to turn his head back to Eren and place the lightest of pecks on the top of his head. “I know. I’ve dreamed about it too.” 

They lay like that for a few more minutes, and Eren had almost fallen asleep when Levi sighed harshly. 

Eren groaned. “What now?” 

“It’s too hot to cuddle. I can’t fall asleep.” 

Eren propped himself up on an elbow. “Seriously?” 

Levi nodded petulantly. “Yeah. But I _want_ to cuddle. I just can’t when it’s 100°.” 

Eren snorted and flopped onto his back, making sure they weren’t touching anymore. “Well, I wouldn’t want to give you a heatstroke in Maine during a light blizzard. See you in the morning, Levi.” 

As Eren drifted into sleep, he heard Levi mumble, “I guess the cold isn’t so bad, if it means I get to hold you.” Eren slept with a smile. 

***** 

Eren almost forgot to bring his phone down with him to put it on the charger. He’d been so distracted by Levi that he’d pretty much just forgotten to think about anything else. 

It’d been so nice to hold Levi in his arms, to fall asleep cuddling with him. It had been even nicer to kiss him, and to have Levi say that he’d dreamt about it happening too. He fell asleep next to Levi, in Levi’s bed, and woke up the same way. They'd rolled onto their sides and Eren had stretched his neck to bridge the short gap between them to press a morning kiss to Levi's lips. Levi wrinkled his nose. "Tch. Morning breath." 

Eren raised an eyebrow and grinned. "Well then, Mr. Clean Freak, let's go brush our teeth so I can kiss you without you _complaining_ about it." 

After their detour in the bathroom - which took much too long because as soon as Eren put away the extra toothbrush Levi had given him Levi had attacked his mouth with a surprising level of ferocity - they'd headed downstairs in the pursuit of bacon, hands brushing against each other as they went. Eren plugged in his phone and then ventured into the dining room after Levi. They were the last ones down, and everyone else had heaping plates of assorted stereotypical breakfast foods. There were three chairs empty, two next to each other and one next to Armin. Yesterday, he'd have taken the one next to Armin out of pure habit, but today was different. Today he hesitated for a split second before taking the seat next to the one Levi had just claimed. They sat down and started filling their plates, a chorus of 'good morning’s rounding the table. 

As Eren settled back in his seat to chow down on way too much sausage, he saw Mikasa and Armin exchange a look with each other. Mikasa grinned at Armin before looking over at Eren. "Eren, when you said you were going up to give Levi some blankets, I thought you were going to come back." 

Eren froze, ears going tomato red. He glanced over at Levi, who was looking back and forth between Eren and Mikasa like it was a riveting tennis match. Eren swallowed and shrugged. "It was warmer in Levi's room." 

Mikasa nodded in a way that told him she definitely didn't believe him. "Huh. Figure that." She shared another look with Armin, mirth obvious in their eyes, and then they returned to their food. 

Eren suspiciously took another bite of his sausage, eyes narrowed in their direction. He glanced over at Levi to see him thoughtfully gnawing on a piece of slightly rubbery bacon. Eren wondered if Levi had wanted him to give another answer, but he figured it was too late to do anything about it. He picked up his fork and stuck a bite of eggs in his mouth. 

"Also, we're boyfriends now, so it makes sense that he'd want to stay with me." Eren's eyes bugged out of his head as he jerked around to look at Levi. He barely managed to swallow his eggs without choking on them. Levi's Uncle Kenny hadn't been so lucky. He coughed and hacked for at least 15 seconds, Levi's mom swatting his back to help dislodge the biscuit that had ventured down the wrong pipe. Mikasa's fork hadn't lifted from the pancakes she'd just stabbed with her fork, and Armin's cereal-laden spoon had frozen halfway to his lips. His mouth was still open, and Eren wondered if he'd be stuck like that long enough to drool. 

Levi turned to Eren with an innocently confused look on his face. Eren's eyes hadn't quite gone back to normal and Levi looked even more concerned when he saw how shocked he looked. "What did I do?" 

Eren's lips slowly quirked into a wide, fond smile. He shook his head and said, "Nothing." He said it quietly, but it practically boomed in the silent dining room. Levi blinked at him, like he didn't quite believe him, and the unabated resounding silence in the room wasn't helping. 

Eren huffed fondly. He made a big show of switching his fork from his right hand to his left, then he reached with his right hand to lace his fingers through Levi's under the table. "Absolutely nothing," he repeated, louder, firmer, and then he took another bite of eggs off of the fork in his left hand. 

Everyone at the table hesitated, holding their silence for another few seconds. For the third time that morning, Armin and Mikasa exchanged a look, this one of victory, and then they returned to their food with gusto. The rest of the table followed their lead and began eating again, Kenny coughing one more time before taking another bite of his biscuit. 

Eren squeezed his boyfriend's hand under the table. 

_His boyfriend._

**Author's Note:**

> so now that you've made it to the end: basically headcanon that Levi has mild aspergers like my lil bro. Thought about mentioning it in the fic, but I feel like people use mental disabilities as some kind of exception, like I only have to be nice to people who are difficult/weird/awkward if they have a mental disability and if they don't I have an excuse to be an asshole. So I didn't make it canon in this fic because I wanted to show someone having patience with another person regardless of a lack of official diagnosis and show that how you treat people is a choice, and Eren is making the right one. Anywho~~~  
> how'd you like it? good? no? should I stick to angst and pain and agonizing over mutually unrequited feeeeelingssss?  
> comments make my world go round and make sure I take less than 6 months to finish fics lololol


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